Check Point NGFW Reviews

We use Check Point NGFW mainly for a perimeter firewall for ingress and egress traffic control, firewalling, but we also use a lot of other functions within the NGFW capability.

Check Point NGFW provides a bunch of different products or Blades, as they call it in Check Point. The firewall engine is what we use the most but we also use the IPS IDS and Anti-Bot features. The solution provides many features.

The management of memory in the hardware needs to improve. They have had a lot of issues with memory leakage.

I have been using Check Point NGFW for approximately 10 years.

The solution is mostly stable. However, we have these memory issues from time to time, that cripple the performance occasionally, but other than that, they are very stable.

The solution is scalable and it is easy to do.

Overall the technical support is very good. If we have an operational issue, they can sometimes be a bit slow in responding. Other than this, I have nothing to complain about.

I was not around when the implementation was completed but using my experience in these global scenarios, there's always complexity, there probably was some complexity involved.

Check Point NGFW requires security and OS patching, and life cycle management. Every three to five years you need to replace the hardware. We have a dedicated team that does the maintenance of the solution.

It's hard to say exactly how many people are involved in implementing and maintaining the solution because some of the work is outsourced, but I would say it's a team of approximately between 10 and 20 people.

When comparing the price of Check Point NGFW to other solutions it's difficult to compare because even though everything is included in the Fortinet price, there are large differences between the models. You need to go to a quite expensive Fortinet firewall to receive the same throughput and functionality as in a Check Point firewall. In the end, they are quite similar in price, Fortinet might be a bit cheaper.

I have used other solutions, such as Fortinet and Palo Alto.

I'm not sure that there are many differences between Check Point NGFW, Fortinet, and Palo Alto. I haven't used any Fortinet solutions myself, I'm not sure exactly how they work, but I would say that, from a management perspective, both of them are quite similar. Operational-wise, Check Point NGFW is a bit more stable and has a more mature operating system, at least the model that we are using. 

The only difference in functions is how they have branded the firewalls because, in Fortinet, you receive all the functionality for the same price as the firewall itself. Everything is included. However, with Check Point, you buy the hardware separately, and then you buy the different plates that you need and the different licenses for the functions that you need. It's a bit more complex license-wise with Check Point.

When you implement anything in an environment you need to have a good design to begin with, you do not want to have to rebuild it after you have implemented it. It is important to
be thorough in preparations and planning.

I would recommend this solution to others.

I rate Check Point NGFW an eight out of ten.

We used this firewall to replace a faulty Cisco 2500. The main solution needed packet filtering and port restriction. We found the functionality handy for filtering email spam. There's a helpful API embedded in the device. 

The online version of the documentation is well written.

The speed of the device is really impressive as it is able to process 1.8 GPS, which is a big improvement over the older device.

The delivery time was really fast. With the help of the reseller, we got the device in less than three days.  

As a replacement for an old solution in the office, we were not expecting big improvements with the firewall. However, we had noticed an improvement while we added rules into the system. The new GUI is really nice and easy to use.

We are now able to use infrastructure as a code and add the firewall into the pipeline with terraform as a controller and everything works really well. 

The API is handy and we are now testing how we can add rules via code. Also, the GUI is easy to use.

The Terraform module for Check Point is complete and really useful for managing the firewall.

Mail filtering is a really good feature that we are implementing for scam protection. 

The graphic interface is really easy to use and easy to teach to other members of the team.

The online documentation is complete and easy to read and understand.

The 3-year warranty offered is nice to have with no extra costs needed from us.

The exterior of the physical device can be improved with the use of a display and not just simple lights.

All the physical devices located in the rack are similar, Just a box with some small lights that does not provide too much information. 

For. me as a final user I will be happy if I can get a display that can show the error code when is a failure and not a simple  red led (This is the common practice). 

I just want more information when I'm on front the device. i know always can walk to my desk and check the GUI with the documentation and the information required. 

I've used the solution for three months now.

I have not had any issues since the moment of installation.

Users get a really nice performance in the order of 2.5 GPS.

Technical support is excellent. I do not have any complaints.

Positive

Yes. We used to use a Cisco 2500 and a Fortinet 110C. 

The Check Point device is better and the speed is superior.

We got full support from the provider and the manufacturer.

The vendor did all the migration in just a couple of hours.

I'm not involved in finance. I can't speak to any ROI.

I was not involved in the pricing; I was only involved in the installation and use it regularly.

The provider offers us the device in three days with the support to import the existing rules and make the migration. We didn't evaluate anything else. 

I really love the device and would choose it over the Cisco and the Fortinet 110C.

We first deployed Check Point for our clients. Our first client wanted to deploy the security appliances in a cluster solution for their network infrastructure solution. The NGTW chosen was the 5800 series and it was deployed as a software solution on clients' servers. Everything is going smoothly and the client seems happy with our proposal.

For our client, it is extremely important to protect the internal network infrastructure from any malicious attempt to break into their critical data. The NFGW cluster has been a step towards greater visibility in regards to their internal operations. The logs give a very detailed panorama of risks.

URL filtering, Application Control, and the Intrusion Prevention System are the features that almost every client wants to be guaranteed by their security appliances. 

Check Point NGFW also generates very helpful reports based on the logs of the activated features, including the features mentioned (URL filtering, Application Control, and the Intrusion Prevention System, as well as anti-bot and anti-spam). 

Sandblast is also a great feature, soon to be added to this solution through endpoints.

The appliances are quite intuitive and easy to be used. The hotfixes are useful and often released with notifications sent to the client.

There have been a few requests/issues about the Identity Awareness feature. The connection to AD, which was a request from the user, required the TAC team's support. 

I've been using the solution for more than 3 years.

This solution is stable and its replacement will not be needed for some time. Security is a need, and as such, it should be a permanent investment.

It seems pretty scalable. Scalability is one of the features that make Check Point different from other vendors. Most of the Quantum series are usable with the Maestro solution, where the client can practically add up other appliances on top of the previous one, without replacing it.

Cases don't always get a resolution immediately, however, the TAC team is supportive and through continuous interactions and suggestions, all cases have been resolved (within 1-2 weeks when they are not urgent).

Positive

For our own infrastructure, Check Point was the first vendor chosen.

The implementation is straightforward. The setup is clear and simple, much like any other software nowadays.

We did an in-house implementation.

The biggest investment is the initial one when you purchase the solution. It needs very little maintenance, and the automation it offers makes it easy to maintain.

The setup is easy and intuitive, and licensing has good coverage to meet the needs for most of the clients. Price is the least favorite element regarding Check Point. Its products aren't the cheapest ones in the market, however, the ratio of value to money is fair.

Fortinet was considered as an option as well.

It can function as either a standalone appliance or as part of a clustered solution, offering flexibility to suit the needs of various customers, ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. We have experience working with a diverse clientele across different industries, leveraging Check Point's solutions to provide comprehensive network security tailored to each organization's requirements.

Extracting data from the logs and utilizing the log analyzer tool provides valuable insights and enhances the product's overall effectiveness.

Managing a smaller number of firewalls is straightforward, but as the scale increases, especially with numerous firewall instances, the complexity grows significantly. Scalability should be improved.

I have been working with it for twenty years.

It offers good stability capabilities.

We've encountered challenges related to scalability, particularly with its performance slowing down as the volume of objects in the network grows.

While most engineers are typically responsive, there may be variations in their availability and response times. I would rate its customer service and support eight out of ten.

Positive

I also work with Fortinet, and I find it preferable because it offers a wider range of options. Additionally, its integrated package functions exceptionally well, with seamless coordination between services.

The initial setup process is typically straightforward for most customers. However, when comparing Check Point with other solutions like FortiGate, there's a notable difference in how policy rules are implemented. With Check Point, you need to install the entire policy each time you want to make changes, whereas FortiGate allows for more streamlined updates by simply accepting the modifications. This can sometimes add complexity to installing a new policy with Check Point.

The deployment time varies depending on the scale of the project. For small cases, it may only take a couple of minutes, while larger-scale deployments can span up to a month. Having a skilled engineer is crucial; one proficient engineer can handle the job effectively. Maintenance is relatively straightforward.

While it may be slightly more expensive, when compared with competition it is reasonable. Licenses are renewed annually.

Overall, I would rate it nine out of ten.

Our customer has been the best in stock trading; they observed that in peak hours or business hours buying and selling the stocks was time-consuming.

When they reached out to the firewall team, we checked the disk space, memory, and HDD we didn't notice much difference.

However, we monitored the interface utilization, and 1 GB was choking up and being consumed. The cpstat status on the interface level monitor and bundling the multiple interfaces fixed the issue.

We have been fixing the performance and also found that the solution offers:
1. A user-friendly dashboard with all the information available in front view and we view according to our requirements in graphical, statistically, etc.
2. Check Point firewall can combine all locations in one Check Point management console so that we can monitor everything with alert configuration.
3. We have multiple options for SIC resetting.
4. We can monitor the complete organization (for RAM, Memory, Disk, and CPU) and alert handle monitoring. We can now easily handle failovers.

The Check Point firewall features for Next Generation Firewalls are excellent. Through scripts, we can easily push firewall rules, extract, and import as per availability. Scripting is the best way to support the firewall functionality and it's been supported by all major versions. We can monitor all types of logs (traffic logs, management logs, and active logs). 

The firewall is EDR-supported; we can block or allow the URLs as per phishing or detection. 

Firewall flow and logs analysis is awesome.  

Bug Fixes and enhancement requests should be remediated earlier, as we have multiple dependencies and auditors are forced to have the latest possible environments.

Check Point's major version should have an extended time than the default time mentioned in the end-of-life policy document with additional prices.

As for deployment, we follow best practices for long-term support services. Tools must be introduced and supportive in analyzing the data, flow, and threats. We have to introduce the scripting part to work seamlessly.

I've been using the solution for more than ten years.

The stability offers high performance.

The scalability offers high performance.

The support is the best in the marketplace.

Positive

We did not use a different solution. It's the best in the marketplace and stronger than any other firewall. We can trust it 100%.

The initial setup was complex.

We handled the setup in-house.

Definitely, every sector [banks, finance, corporate, etc] should have a Check Point Firewall for strengthening/securing the environment.

We did not evaluate other options.

Check Point Next Generation Firewall is one of the most secure and stable firewalls present in the market. the integration & implementation of Check Point Next Generation firewall took place due to security concerns, and we were impressed by what this product brings with it.

The integration of Check Point Next Generation Firewall in my organization has taken over one year or so, and it helps to segregate the internal network and build a secure VLAN that separates every department.

Scalability, end-to-end resolution, and customized productive services make Check Point Next Generation Firewall far better than the alternatives present in the market. It has services like navigation, control, and filtering that ensure that all users stay connected to business applications and helps restrict traffic.

The integration of Check Point Next Generation Firewall proved to be highly productive and scalable, and everything was offered at a lower price.

Check Point Next Generation Firewall helped out us drive innovation and growth in our organization. It provided a safe passage for system and data security via its services of navigation, control, and filtering. The product ensures that all users stay connected to business applications and helps restrict traffic.

Overall, the Check Point Next Generation Firewall protects us from all types of internal and external threats while being easy to use and set up.

The integration of the Check Point Next Generation Firewall in my organization has taken over one year. It helps to segregate the internal network and build a secure VLAN that separates every department.

We like the scalability, end-to-end resolution, and customized productive services. This makes Check Point Next Generation Firewall far better than any alternative present in the market.

It offers services like navigation, control, and filtering, which ensure that all users stay connected to business applications.

Check Point Next Generation Firewall Protects systems from all types of internal and external threats.

Check Point Next Generation Firewall requires frequent updates. They need to build a more user-friendly dashboard and have the implementation of more active VPN support.

Apart from this, Check Point Next Generation Firewall customer support service needs to be improved. They need to offer quicker resolution and maintenance during downtime.

Check Point Next Generation Firewall Protects from all types of internal and external attacks and is a must-have software for professionals and organizations.

It has been more than one year since I integrated Check Point NGFW.

I haven't been in integration with any other solution.

We decided on this solution after looking at reviews and comparing prices. Check Point proved to be the best option in the end. 

I would advise others to go for it. It's easy to set up and available at lower pricing than alternatives.

No, we did not evaluate other options. We just compared other alternatives from some review websites and decided to go for Check Point.

It's a must-integrate solution for professionals and organizations.

I have been using this solution as a perimeter firewall. 

Our organization has ISP-based DDoS protection on the outer attack surface. Then, we have Check Point Next Generation Firewall with an IPS module as a second layer of protection. And then, we have Check Point Access Control, Application, and URL filtering, anti-virus, and anti-bot modules enabled. We also have the cloud-based Check Point Threat Emulation solution and different segmentations on Check Point Firewall as a DMZ zone, internal zone, and external zone. Our internal zones have different segments to improve our security level. We apply it by dividing our network into different VLANs by using the Check Point solution.

Check Point is the first vendor in which we found the stateful firewall terminology. It is always on the top of the list of best firewall solutions. 

Financially, the benefit of Check Point is very high when I compare it with an average firewall solution. At the end of the day, the benefits it provides are already higher than I paid. 

Our business performance is already doubled by the help of Check Point. If we need to talk about efficiency of administrators while managing a security  solution, I consider it as one of the most important item. 

Thanks to Check Point, our security team can easily handle different problems in time.

Check Point gateway and management installation are very easy. After the console-based installation steps, you can continue on the web GUI interface. This is very valuable. It doesn't let you make a simple mistake, which might be a reason to install all the systems from the beginning. It has been designed to give you flexibility as much as needed; not more, not less. It prevents human mistakes, basically.

If I have to say just one thing as the most valuable; I will say it is the most reliable firewall solution in the world. It is easy to prove that when I compare the number of CVEs which are published in a year among firewall vendors.

The routing rules and some more network settings should be listed on the Check Point Smart Console instead of GAIA Web GUI. It might be a little bit confusing when an administrator remembers the location of the settings. Also, it is hard to manage the settings by always jumping from GAIA Web-based graphical user interface to Java based Smart Console dashboard. Also, Check Point Next Generation Firewall has a very detailed and well-organized CP view on the console on both CLISH and expert (/bin/bash) shells; which gives an administrator a real-time monitoring option on the console.

I have been using it for more than six years.

On a heavy load, I haven't experienced packet loss or inconsistent behaviors.

In the beginning, I would consider Check Point solution as not scalable enough. However, after Maestro architecture, it is extremely scalable now. The organizations does not have to pay a lot of money to plan for the next 2-3 years. They are flexible enough to allow for the extension of their systems by adding another module like a blade.

The customer service and support team respond in minutes. If it is a critical issue, you can reach them in seconds via chat.

Positive

I used Palo Alto and Fortinet firewalls before. From Fortinet to Palo Alto it was a big change. 

Fortinet was not a good enough solution as compared to PA. Then, due to finances and some other reasons, I switched to the Check Point and it was one of the best decisions in my life.

The initial setup is straightforward. You just need to define disk allocation for logs and system files and backup files as an amount. Then you can continue with Web GUI to set up network, DNS, etc. settings. Then you complete your setup by installing the Smart Console interface.

The Check Point support team is one of the best. When I need them, they can escalate the ticket to an appropriate level of engineer to fix the problem.

As a security solution in this kind of market, prestige and being reliable cannot be measured with money. It costs more than a million dollars to have a defacement attack. The costs to prevent this kind of attack cannot be measured with money, in my opinion.

I'd advise others to worry about changing their firewall habits from any vendor to Check Point. It will be one of the best decisions of their life. If you have time and money to take care of other vendors, go ahead. However, if you are smart enough to manage your money and time, don't be afraid to give a chance to Check Point solution.

I did get some PoCs from other vendors such as Sophos and some other firewall vendors which are focused on small-size organizations mostly.

I recommend to all system managers and security administrators to try all the enterprise firewall solutions. Then, most likely the final decision will be to use the Check Point Next Generation firewall.

We use Check Point for the firewall in DMZ and surrounding zones and another product we have. We use a variety of series from 2000, 4000, and 6000 gateways, and also we use Smart-1 and Maestro solutions. 

We apply some features (IPS - Intrusion Prevention System, application control, reporting, antivirus, and anti-spam) using Smart-1 to make day-to-day operation more simple and easy using one management for all gateways. The remote console, such as SSH, is a little complicated, however, you can use it for troubleshooting.

It's improved our organization with simple day-to-day operations with easy tracking of traffic for troubleshooting, with a variety of features. The latest benefit for our company is to save more space for our rack with Maestro and virtualization. 

Some problems may appear and we can open TAC to get assistance from the principal. We also can control more traffic of users to the internet using application control. Our email is more secure using anti-spam and currently, we are in the middle of activating HTTPS inspection to secure our application on the internet.

I enjoy the application control for user traffic control to the internet and the tcpdump command for troubleshooting.

When applying application control, we can ensure user access to the internet in accordance with company policy and easy implementation if some users need exception access.

There is an easy troubleshooting network connection via logs and monitoring menu. We often use this menu for checking connections and if the traffic is not in the logs menu, we can use the tcpdump command from the ssh session to the gateway. It's the fastest way to troubleshoot.

For the migration for Smart-1, I wish the security policy could allow for a migration per gateway. 

There needs to be more storage space for reporting. The storage is always full if the reporting feature is on.

We need HA for Smart-1.

The traffic trekking (logs view) needs to be more accurate. Some traffic is often not in the logs view.

We'd like to have more user friendly menu for import vpn users.

There needs to be more compatibility with SIEM.

It would be great if we could join domains with more than one Active Directory server (active-active).

There needs to be an easy menu for export backup configuration (the current menu always has an error).

The signature information needs more detail. We need to know current update versions and on running versions.

I have been using Check Point since 2010 (12 years).

We already are using a variety of brands.

Sometimes you need to repeatedly upgrade the version or update the patch.

The help we received was good.

The cost is pricey. 

We did not evaluate other solutions first.